Is that guy a shoplifter, or someone using EasyPay at the Apple Store?

Apple makes it ridiculously easy to shop in their retail stores if you’ve got an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad on you. Using the company’s shopping app, you can scan a product’s bar code, pay for it on your phone and walk out the door without ever talking to a store employee.

When someone hears about this for the first time, an obvious question comes to mind: What’s to stop someone from taking advantage of this system to steal? When I asked an Apple Store manager about this earlier this year for a Chronicle story on tech in retail, I was told, “We trust our customers.”

But apparently Apple doesn’t trust them too much. Just ask 18-year-old Eric Shine, who says he was detained and arrested for shoplifting in the fabled 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York. In a story reported by Macworld, Shine claims he scanned the bar code on a set of headphones on Aug. 20 using the Apple Store iPhone app, asked a Genius for a bag in which to place the his purchase and started to walk out the door.

An Apple security guard and manager stopped Shine and accused him of stealing the headphones. Figuring he had electronic proof of the purchase, Shine tried to show the digital receipt. But that’s not what he found when he fired up his phone:

. . . “I pulled out my iPhone, and realized it still showed the Pay Now button, and not the receipt,” Shine said. “I told them I had no intent of stealing; I’ve been in the store for an hour, and I’m still willing to purchase the headphones.”

That didn’t satisfy the Apple Store staff. “They said, they see this all the time, and that they knew I had the intent to steal, and this was an easy excuse,” said Shine, who pointed out to the manager that he had asked for—and received—a bag from an Apple Store employee for the headphones. When you successfully complete a transaction, the Apple Store app clearly states that, to get a bag, “just show a specialist your receipt.” Shine says the Apple Store employee he spoke to didn’t ask to see his receipt, compounding his own error with the app.

The store’s manager called police, who took Shine to jail. He now faces larceny charges in a case set for October. Apple wouldn’t comment on the matter to Macworld, saying it was a legal issue.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that Shine was indeed using the app as a ploy to shoplift. Retail security experts contacted by Macworld were skeptical of his story, saying the app makes it clear when you’ve completed a transaction:

. . . “I don’t believe that story for a second,” said Chris Ciabarra, chief technical officer and co-founder of Revel Systems which makes a point-of-sale system built on the iPad. As with his own app, Revel says that the Apple Store app is “very clear about when you’re done — it’s very informational. It’s really easy to know how to use the app; everyone knows if they’ve actually paid for it or not.”

I have used the app several times to buy things in Apple retail stores, and it is incredibly convenient. You can see a receipt from one of those transactions above. It is clear when the transaction’s complete, but I could see someone in a hurry tapping the Pay Now button and putting the phone away without checking to see if the sale went through. The fact that Shine asked for a bag, knowing a clerk was supposed to ask to see a receipt, is an indicator that he may be telling the truth.

Oh, there’s also the fact that went back to another Apple Store after his overnight stay in jail and used the EasyPay system to buy the headphones . … this time making sure the transaction completed.

Clearly, this is a cautionary tale. If you take advantage of the convenience a self-checkout system offers, make sure you also don’t become a victim of its downside – that, to a suspicious store employee, self-checkout looks very similar to shoplifting. Make sure you see a receipt on your mobile device before you head for the exit.

What do you think? Is Shine telling the truth?

Dwight Silverman | Techblogger, social media manager

Connect

Upgrade your geek with Dwight Silverman

Search TechBlog

Keyword search across all the entries in this blog.

Categories

Categories

Search TechBlog by month/year

Search TechBlog by month/year

Browse previous blog posts by month and year of entry. You'll see all the posts for that time period.

Select Month

Show Earlier

Browse previous blog posts by month and year of entry. You'll see all the posts for that time period.